By Ashley Young-
Twitter is testing a slew of new features it believes will make it easier for users to know when others are on the site and wish to start or join a conversation.
Sara Haider, director of product management at Twitter, and Mike Kruzeniski, senior director of product design revealed the new features this week at an event hosted by Fast Company in New York City
”We want the best conversation for you coming to you as quickly as possible,” Kruzeniski said at the event. “Can you tell us what you’re interested in? And [can] we quickly get you to that conversation?”
Twitter have highlighted four new features the company is examining. The company is also considering highlighting replies in a different color, to make it easier for users to keep track of back-and-forth conversations with an individual.
Twitter, run by CEO boss Jack Dorsey, is also testing out an additional prompt that encourages users to reply below every single tweet. The extra provision is designed to add to the chat bubble icon already located below every tweet. Twitter are looking to go beyond the icon, which isn’t enough to start conversations. Its innovative goals extends to a brilliant adventure on a new “status” feature that enable users to be able to set their availability, informing followers whether they are online or offline. Once you set your availability is set, users will be able to utilize a status feature to tell people where they are, what they are doing, or where they have been.
ICEBREAKER
The company is working on another feature, simply called “ice breaker” that will allow you to pin a tweet to the top of your profile to let people know you want to talk about something specific. This could help you get your followers to start a conversation, or simply help new people get to know you.
The other two changes Twitter is considering are “status indicators” that show when a user is online, and the ability to pin an “icebreaker” question to the top of their profile that asks for replies and tweets about a specific topic, like thoughts on a recent TV episode or NFL game.
Twitter.com